Noyce Scholar Profile
Blake Blasingame
Undergraduate major or graduate field of study: Secondary Education
Subject area(s) and grade level teaching focus: High School Mathematics
Category of scholarship/fellowship:
Noyce Scholar
Name of Noyce institution:
Tiger's Teach
Current academic or teaching status:
Junior
School and school district:
N/A
Background:
I am from Rock Hill, South Carolina. Both of my parents are teachers. My mom teaches fifth grade and my dad is a pastor so I’ve always grown up in a very educational household. Growing up I’ve always loved math and I’ve done well at it. When I was younger I enjoyed building things, so I had early aspirations to be an architect. When I got into high school I still loved math, but I started to enjoy working with computers a lot and so after some debate I came into Clemson University and a computer engineer. The driving factor behind this decision was the salary. After taking some engineering classes, which I really didn’t enjoy, I thought about education. The only reason I didn’t want to be a teacher was because of the money. I always enjoyed helping my classmates in high school with math, so after a lot of consideration and prayer, I made the decision to major in math/education. I feel that this is definitely what God wants me to do with my life, which was the deciding factor in switching.
Why do you want to teach:
At the basis of my desire to teach, I simply want to see students excel. It’s all about when that light bulb goes off and the student finally understands a concept that he or she has been struggling with. Not only do I want to help students do better in the classroom, but many students need help with life. As a teacher and seeing the same students on a daily basis, there is a great opportunity to have a positive impact on these students’ lives. I would love to be that teacher that guys come to when they’re having trouble no only in school but with whatever and need some help or advice. Those teachers were always the best when I went through high school and I would love to be that teacher eventually.
Describe a memorable teaching experience:
A big impact on my decision was from a mission trip I went on in the spring of 2012 to Chicago. I spent a week in a very high needs and a very low-income school. It was incredible to see the need that the students have but also the lack of motivation and poor effort on the end of the teachers. The students definitely had a motivation to learn but that motivation wasn’t be fostered in the right direction. Instead the students would just get in trouble because there was no direction for them to direct their energy. This experience definitely added to my motivation to be a teacher.
What does the Noyce program mean to you:
Noyce TigersTeach means a lot to be because it has really helped me out monetarily with tuition. It also gave me motivation from freshman to sophomore year. I interviewed my freshman year for the scholarship, but didn’t receive it. It was a great driving factor behind my schoolwork so that I could apply again my sophomore year again.
